The Walking Seminar is an monthly walk, hosted by Annemarie Mol, during which we talk-walk about various issues concerning academic work. The idea is that talking-while-walking enhances thinking in ways not attainable behind a desk or in a seminar sitting down.

dinsdag 6 oktober 2015

Walking Seminar on Ethnographic methods and guiding questions

The next walking seminar will be on October 16th(from 13:00 o’clock until early evening, depending on the chosen
destination).The theme will be Ethnographic methods and guiding
questions.

Here is the tension: if you
go into the field without a question your investigations risks to lack
direction and you may not get any kind of grasp on what is going on. However,
with a question that is too tight or too tightly handled, you may not be open
enough to surprises. What are good ways of handling that tension in the
practice of doing ethnographic research – that is to say what are good ways in your
research?

If you are in the very last
stage of a project, this tension has not gone away. For even if you are no
longer in the position to gather more stories from the field, you still face
the question how to tell those stories: as answers to questions you
(ever so astutely) asked or as surprising findings that unexpectedly hit you in
the face? (There may be other variants.. discuss!)

For those who would like to
orient their thinking beforehand, here is a possibly inspiring text:

Taylor, Janelle S. 2014. “The Demise of the
Bumbler and the Crock: From Experience to Accountability in Medical Education
and Ethnography.” American Anthropologist 116 (3): n/a – n/a.
doi:10.1111/aman.12124.